ARAC (The Romanian Association for Contemporary Art) is a non-profit organization founded in June 2012, in order to produce and promote contemporary art in Romania and abroad. The team of ARAC supports and promotes contemporary Romanian artists by attracting funds in order to ensure financial resources – as part of ARAC’s mission statement. An important objective of ARAC is to facilitate international cultural exchanges with artistic environments from around the world. Through the years, ARAC has organised residency programs (58 Plantelor Residency), exhibitions and published art books while actively investigating and reflecting upon emerging developments in contemporary art and culture.
In the next 2 years, between 2020 – 2022, ARAC will carry out, in partnership with the ARTAK350 residence in Iceland, a large-scale project that aims to expand the local contemporary art scene, through a series of cultural events and artistic residencies. The main topics of discussion set for the project: climate change, economic and war migration, new technologies, the gallery and ARAC aims to develop a dialogue about social developments and their perception at the global level. The exhibitions will be followed by a series of discussions and meetings with guest artists and curators for evenings of video and performance screenings called: “Insomnia Nights“. The 2 year-programme will finalize with the Exhibition of the public, a pilot project for the first time in Romania that further encourages the local public to interact with the gallery portfolio.
In 2020, ARAC became a member of The European art academies and cultural institutions at the invitation of Akademie der Künste. Around 70 representatives of European art academies and cultural institutions gathered for a hybrid conference to initiate the Alliance, from 8 to 10 Oct 2020. The institutions involved come from almost every country in the European Union as well as Norway and Great Britain – a strong signal that demonstrates the need for a transnational alliance based on solidarity, especially in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and its political consequences, national delineations and right-wing populist isolationist fantasies. Further information on the alliance: https://allianceofacademies.eu/
ARAC is a non-profit organization founded in June 2012, in order to produce and promote contemporary art in Romania and abroad. The initiative of the 58 Plantelor Residency belongs to Anca Poterasu, gallerist and ARAC President. The first edition of the Residency took place in 2015 and it was financed through a grant offered by Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the Romanian Government.